CS Video Interview: Julie Delpy on 2 Days in New York

The transition to filmmaker is one that many actors have taken, but few actors have the experience working with influential filmmakers as France’s Julie Delpy, who began her career appearing in movies by filmmaking legend Jean Luc Goddard, as well as Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Three Colors” series. She became better known in the States when she was paired with Ethan Hawke for Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise in 1995, followed nine years later by their reunion with Before Sunrise that got the trio an Oscar nomination for their screenplay.

Similar to Before Sunset, Delpy returns to previous characters with her new movie 2 Days in New York, the follow-up to her 2007 movie 2 Days in Paris, which had her character Marion and her then boyfriend Jack traveling to Paris to see her family. Now, Marion’s living in New York City with her radio host boyfriend Mingus, played by Chris Rock, and she’s ready to subject him to her family: her father who speaks no English (played by Delpy’s real-life father Albert Delpy), her hot-to-trot sister Rose (Alexia Landeau, who also co-wrote the script) and her sister’s annoying boyfriend. As one might expect, it’s a far more offbeat comedy that’s likely to appeal to more mainstream audiences than its predecessor.

ComingSoon.net sat down with the lovely actress/filmmaker to talk about the movie and why she decided to return to familiar territory while also taking on the challenges of shooting in New York City, working with a big name actor like Chris Rock and also making what would end up being a wackier comedy. We also talked a bit about her reuniting with Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke for the planned sequel to Before Sunset, as well as traded stories of how being a writer with ADD forces us to write many different things at once.

2 Days in New York opens in New York at the Angelika and Lincoln Plaza Theaters on Friday, August 10, and in other cities on August 17, though it’s also currently available on VOD and iTunes.